New to CS4. Quick question about Program Monitor

I'm new to CS4 after having used Adobe Elements 3.0.2 for three years. This forum has helped with the steep learning curve, but I have one unanswered question.

The playback on my Program Monitor is not smooth. With elements it was always very smooth, but I had to render first. Now with PP CS4, playback is a bit jumpy especially in pans and zooms. When I export the project it is fine.

I have searched and looked for help, but I can't seem to find it. I always render my timeline. I selected "best quality playback." I'm using three 7200 hard drives to spread out the project.

I would sure appreciate your help with this.

Best quality playback taxes your system.
Perhaps you don't have enough juice to playback the source footage and keep the best quality, therefore the jerky playback.
I would suggest to go to Automatic quality, and let Premiere decide what's best..

The program monitor is a reference anyways, allowing to make sure your cuts are clean, and dissolves are smooth.
I personally don't depend on the Program monitor to judge for quality. This is done with a separate broadcast monitor.

Also, you should double check your source footage, and sequence settings. They should match as close as possible.

Good luck!!!

Thanks Peter. Yep, I did set to Automatic Quality from High Quality. That seems to be one of those secrets that's hidden from us new users.
I do appreciate your info on the program monitor. Excellent explanation.

Now I need to find out how to setup my 32" LCD as a "broadcast monitor". My video card does have that capability, if that's what you are referring to. Do I just pull the monitor panel over to my LCD ?? Is that what you mean?

Thanks so much for taking the time to help me.

Hey Tom....

That's great. You'll need to search the forums or internet for "dual monitor", or "external monitor" options..
Perhaps even perusing the video card website might give you some help.

Once you've configured your playback, you'll want to calibrate the main viewing monitor. Search up on "monitor calibration".

For those of us that have external cards dedicated for monitoring, it's a bit different.
I believe that people who use the dual outputs on their video cards for both editing and monitoring, have a bit of a different challenge...

I believe that when i update to CS5, i will be in the same boat as you in regards to monitoring..My Matrox card will be next to invalid, and will need to search for other monitoring options..


Good luck, and get back with your results.

Hummmmmm, when I change the size of my Program Monitor to 25% it is very smooth. If I go back up to "Fit" or 75% that 'swhen the shutter takes place.

I also noticed that when I uploaded it as HD to Vimeo it also has a slight shutter on the Pans..... I shot at 1080i 60. Someone on another forum mentioned that HDV was like that and not real smoothe for pans and zooms. ??

If you're watching Vimeo, then make sure you're on Firefox..Internet Exporer bogged me down.
Your stutter issues in the playback monitor confirm that it's either video card, or system performance..

You haven't posted any info. about the system, so we can only assume...

Take care!!!

Sorry bout that, Peter.

i7-860 processor 8MB Cache, 2.80 GHz, 8 gig DDR3 ram, ATI HD 5670 video card,

three 7200 rpm HD 1 TB each. (2 are sata one is esata) , editing HDV.

Now here's the part I wonder about. Newegg's Power supply info "chart" shows I need at least a 425 watt power supply.... My Dell came with a 350 watt PS. Have I got enough? Am I seriously underpowered? Would that have anything to do with my stutters??

Vimeo is progressive, you shot interlaced... You simply aren't subdividing the pan into as many increments once you go to Vimeo.

With 29.97 interlaced, you have 59.94 fields every second...once you go to Vimeo or any progressive scan deployment, you're now at 29.97 full frames...half as many "instances" of information per second. It won't look the same.

I don't know how your power supply would influence video encoding specifically...if it was straining or becoming over-taxed, your whole system would be having stability issues.

I wouldn't stretch your power supply for too long however...they usually don't just "switch off"...they brown out and cause much wailing and gnashing of teeth on their way out. Data loss, component failure...I'm actually becoming sad just thinking about it...